Homeward Bound
by Rashaka
Summary: Circumstances force Naruto and Sakura to rely on only each other to survive. Chapter 3.
1. Assignment

Disclaimer: noun – a) piddly little statement squeezed into the top margins of a fanfic, with no legal fortitude whatsoever, that supposedly protects one from being sued by richer people whose property will be blatantly stolen and exploited in the pages to follow, but really just amounts to a poor college kid begging.  
Date Written: January 2004  
**Summary: Circumstances force Naruto and Sakura to rely on only each other to survive.  Chapter 1.**  
Spoilers: Anime only, set before the chuunin tests.

**Homeward Bound**

**Chapter 1**

_          Why the hell are we stuck in this stupid place with such a stupid job?_ Sakura asked herself as she sat in the basement of the Ninja Academy, mindlessly sorting through piles of rusted kunai and shruiken.  _'Have to find a single stupid dagger with a single stupid carving,'_ she mimicked, doing her best internal mockery of Kakashi's voice.  It wasn't even the real village armory, just a basement depository for stuff too worn to be of use to anyone but too valuable to throw away.  She darted her to the side and glared at her sorting partner.  _And why the hell am I stuck with him and not Sasuke!_

          The embodiment of her distain felt her stare, and looked up from his own mess of weapons, grinning at the attention as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.  Sakura snorted and turned back to the piles.  _Naruto is so irritating, _she ranted.  _He never takes things seriously, and he always wastes time, and oh god is he** humming**?_

          "SHUT UP!" Sakura screamed, jumping up with a shriek.  Naruto started, accidentally kicking out with one foot, and stacks of sorted weapons as high as their waists went tumbling around them with a clatter of metal and stone.  

          When the noise stopped Sakura opened her eyes and uncovered her ears gently, looking around.  Her partner sat hunched forward, head down and hands clenched together.

          "Naruto."  He didn't move.

          "Hey… Naruto?"  Sakura put a hand to his scalp and pushed his head back.  When wide, empty eyes looked up at her she shrieked again and darted back from him.  The boy's head fell forward again, limp.

          _Calm, Sakura, be calm!_ she scolded her other self.  _Look at him again and find out what's wrong._

          Nothing seemed to be a problem from where she stood.  He wasn't wounded from falling, but his chest didn't move.  Sakura bit her lip, feeling her throat go dry.  _There's more to this, I know there is._  But there was no time to think about traps when Naruto had stopped breathing.  A few minutes to go get help, and his brain would die form lack of oxygen.  Gathering her wits she stepped forward, taking Naruto by the shoulders 

_          don't look at the eyes, don't look at the eyes_  

          and laying him on the floor of the basement on his back.  She put two hands over his chest and began pumping her arms downward in harsh, even pushes.  Every five pumps she leaned his head back and breathed into his mouth.

          _ This isn't working!    Why won't he wake up?_

           Iruka-sensei had always told them, over and over again, to keep pumping until help arrived or you collapsed from exhaustion, because you could be the only thing keeping your friend alive.  Sakura was nearing that exhaustion point right now; she felt it in her bones.  They'd both been tired from the morning's intensive training and this was meant to have been a cool-down mission, allowing them an easy afternoon of meaningless task work.  Up and down she pushed her hands onto Naruto's chest.

          Up, down.  

          Up, down.  

          _I have to think of some way to send for help--_

          Up, down.

          Breathe.

_          Kakashi and Sasuke won't be back to check on our progress _

          Up, down.

_          for two more hours_

          Up, down.

          Up, down.

         _ and Naruto will be dead by then_

          Up, down.

          Breathe.

          Up, down.

_          I don't understand--_

          Up, down.

_          why is this happening?_

          Up, down.

          Up, down.

          Sakura felt her knees give way, her body fall.  Her head struck the basement floor, lolling to the side.  The sound of her own breath echoed far off in the distance. 

          _Naruto, he's glowing... I wonder why.  He's got a kunai under his elbow, too.  I didn't notice that before._

          She tried to lift herself, but something weighed down on her middle, and the whole idea seemed too much trouble all of a sudden.

          _Hey, my body's glowing now.  All this light... it's kind of pretty._

          Before Sakura's eyes closed entirely she wondered if Kakashi would be pleased that they had sorted almost the whole basement.


	2. Orientation

**Homeward Bound**

**Chapter 2**

          Sakura woke up like a brass orchestra unexpectedly brought back to life the night of final rehearsals.  Up, around, on her feet in an instant with eyes everywhere and weapons out.  Sakura was Ready. To. Fight.  

          Anyone.  Everyone.  Whoever was the cause of this crick in her neck from sleeping on a rock pillow.

          To Sakura's disgust but not her surprise, the only person she could see was Uzumaki Naruto, chest rising and falling in time as he slept serenely against a nearby boulder, and Sakura had a strong intuitive sense that he wasn't the one responsible for the rock pillow.  Or, for that matter, for them being knocked out in the armory for god knows how long.  She eyed him with suspicion, watching his eyelids flutter with frantic dreams.  _Probably ones involving ramen, the baka._  His leaf forehead guard was in proper position beneath his bangs, and she could see where a few kunai were hidden beneath his clothes in the usual pockets.  Also, he was snoring slightly.

         _Definitely Naruto._  Sakura examined her own body, her own clothes and shinobi weapons.  _Definitely me._  Next a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn in place, following the horizon.  _Definitely **not** Fire Country._

          "Hey, Naruto!"  Not a stirring.

          _Argh, I can't believe he's so inattentive!  For a shinobi he's not even aware enough to wake at his own name! _  She walked over and smacked him upside the head, adding a bit of chakra energy to her palm for good measure.

          "What what I'm up up up right now!" the boy yelped, hands waving to bat back another smacking.  He noticed Sakura standing above him and blinked at her curiously.  "Sakura-chan.  Good morning."

          Sakura gaped at Naruto in disbelief, and a sweat drop formed on her temple.  _Good morning?  He goes unconscious for no reason, wakes up in an unfamiliar place without shelter or foreknowledge, and all that baka can say is GOOD MORNING?!?_  With some effort Sakura took a deep breath and swallowed her tongue.  This was not the time to let herself be baited by that idiot.  It was the time, however, to brief him on their situation so they could formulate a plan.  "Naruto," she began.

          "Where are we?"  _Alright then, that solves that,_ she thought.  _No need for a briefing after all.  It would have been too short to be fun anyway._

          Naruto  now stood on the rock he'd been sleeping against, earnestly peering at their surroundings with a hand to shade his eyes.  Sakura couldn't decide if he looked excited or annoyed, but finally settled on annoyed.  She was sure the excitement would kick in when he was fully awake.

          "There's...grass."

          "Hai."

          "No mountains."

          "Nope."

          "No rivers."

          "Nope."

          "Just grass.  And little hills."

          "Hai."

          "I don't think we're in Fire Country anymore, Sakura-chan."

          "No, Naruto, we're not."

          Sakura, who'd also never left the village until Team 7's visit to Wave Country, had never seen so much grass and brush in her life.  Wherever she turned she could see more of it: greens and yellows tall enough to touch her shoulders in some places, in others as low as her knees, at best.  To the west and south the land was flat and straight and endless; to the north and east there were low, round hills that rose and dipped like ripples in a pond. And every inch, from horizon to horizon, was unrelentingly empty of  human life.

          She glanced at her teammate, and saw him still consuming the view.  With a sigh Sakura left him to it.  He might catch something she hadn't, and besides, there was something right in front of them that interested her more right now.

          The rock that Naruto had slept against and the one that she had slept against were one of nine, arranged in an uneven circle.  Each stone was several feet wide, a bit taller than Sakura's waist, and as flat as a mirror.  Sakura began to get a funny feeling in her stomach, the one that usually popped up when Iruka-sensei gave a surprise quiz without giving them warning earlier of what to study.

          "Naruto, look at these.  No one would see this circle way out here, amongst all this grass."

          Naruto looked, and frowned as well.  "Then how did whoever put us here find it to put us here in the first place?"

          "That's actually... a really good question."****


End file.
